Costco

Shipt, an online grocery delivering company, is expanding its services in Sarasota to include Costco Wholesale.

The company, which entered Sarasota with its Publix service in October 2015, now serves more than 20 million households in 40 markets throughout the country. Shipt connects members with its professional shoppers, who hand pick their items and deliver them as soon as an hour after the order is placed. The service offers unlimited grocery deliveries to members for $99 per year.

The company this month also is expanding its delivery options in Tallahassee, Gainesville, St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Myers and Naples.

Wawa, the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain, plans to open three locations in Sarasota County.

The chain submitted site plans to build three Sarasota locations, which most recently includes a 6,119-square-foot gas station at the northwest corner of U.S. 301 and Myrtle Street. The convenience store and gas station company plans to build similar sized stores with 16 gas pumps on University Parkway at the southwest corner of Honore Avenue and another at Tamiami Trail and Englewood Road in Venice.

Wawa has been aggressively expanding throughout Florida. Executives previously said they wanted to open a dozen stores in the Orlando and Tampa markets. Three stores are in the works in Manatee County already.

The company filed applications with Sarasota County for the U.S. 301 station earlier this week, though plans are still in the preliminary stages. There is no scheduled opening date.

Wawa is known for its cheap gas and restaurant-quality sandwich bar, fresh salads, breakfast bowls, signature coffees and smoothies, among other items not commonly seen at major convenience stores. The stores also carry traditional convenience store goods, including drinks, snacks and cigarettes.

The chain has a cult-like following similar to the fans of Trader Joe’s and Costco Wholesale, which opened their first stores in Southwest Florida in 2012.

Wawa is a privately held company and its traces roots trace back to 1803. In all, the chain now operates more than 630 convenience stores across the country.

Photo by Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesday

Gordon Food Service, a grocery chain that distributes primarily to restaurants and caterers, will open its first store in Sarasota County next month.

The company will open a brand new 12,600-square-foot store on Sept. 28 in the former Sound Advice location at 6307 S Tamiami Trail near Stickney Point Road. Benderson Development Inc. bought the building in 2013.

In addition to its 130 marketplace stores across the country — including in Bradenton, Fort Myers and St. Petersburg — Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Gordon is the largest privately held food distributor in North America. GFS Marketplace stores range in size from 15,000-25,000 square feet — smaller than a typical Walmart Neighborhood Market or a Trader Joe’s outlet — and sell bulk foods and other items to the public.

Unlike other bulk-food competitors such as Costco Wholesale Club or Walmart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club, no membership is required at GFS Marketplace.

Bulk Nation USA closes

At the same time, a local GFS Marketplace comeptitor, Bulk Nation USA, closed its doors in Sarasota. The food retailer at 4034 S. Tamiami Trail, specialized in bulk offerings of dry goods like coffee, rice, pasta, nuts, candy, among other items. It remained open for a little more than a year.

According to the company’s website, it may be relocating the Sarasota store. The company has other locations in Tampa and Orlando.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Greg Miles is the chief operating officer of Australia-based Westfield Group. Miles has more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate and keen eye for retail. He’s managed development projects with a consolidated project cost of more than $7.5 billion. Miles was in Las Vegas this week for the International Council of Shopping Center’s RECON Convention, the largest retail and real estate confab in the world.

Last year, Westfield Group announced plans to redevelop Sarasota’s Southgate Mall at ICSC RECON.

Herald-Tribune retail reporter, Justine Griffin, spent a few minutes with Miles on a busy last day of the retail conference.

Justine Griffin: Tell me about Westfield’s properties in Sarasota.

Greg Miles: We plan to continue to invest in Sarasota and really improve the tenant mix there. We hope to announce new retailers in the coming months for both properties. But we’re elated at the success we’ve seen in the market so far. The addition of Costco (in 2012) to Sarasota Square Mall has made a tremendous difference to the mall traffic. Now our job is to leverage off that and drive the rest of the tenant mix.

We expect to bring new national and international names to the shopping center soon.

As for Southgate, we feel like we’re well positioned to be a strength in Sarasota and on Tamiami Trail. It really is the best location and closest to the wealthier parts of town. We have a mint opportunity to redevelop it to make it much more in tune with what the people want right there. There is a possibility of a grocery option there, too.

JG: What do you mean by building lifestyle centers instead of malls?

GM: The term “mall” is antiquated. It means four to five department stores and fashion stores, which in a sense is relatively boring. We want to amp it up. Costco and the grocery component gives people more reason to leave home. We may see more transformations with grocery type tenants with JC Penney and Sears in the future, who knows.

But there is a demand to reinvent new centers and add tenants that really compliment the lifestyle of the shoppers we want to attract.

JG: What’s the feel like at ICSC this year?

GM: It’s very much the same this year. There’s a great deal of optimism and incredible healthy and strong views for expansion. People are really focused on the consumer and the American market is stronger than it’s ever been.

Check back to What’s in Store for more ICSC RECON coverage this week. Watch videos of Justine Griffin’s coverage from the 2013 RECON convention here.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.